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Hi, as you may have noticed, I have not posted a lot these days, partly because I am busy, partly because posting via WordPress has become very hard. It takes a lot of work to do it this way, so I am announcing that the new permanent home for Hiddlebatch Fans will be on my Tmblr page. I will be able to post more and more often there. I hope you all will please follow my Tmblr page and be as devoted as you have been on this page.

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God bless all of the victims and their families of the shooting in Orlando Florida. It never ceases to amaze me how much destruction that can be caused by one crazed person. The only answer is love. Love. Love.

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Alan Rickman, one of the best-loved and most warmly admired British actors of the past 30 years, has died in London aged 69. His death was confirmed on Thursday by his family who said that he died “surrounded by family and friends”. Rickman had been suffering from cancer.

A star whose arch features and languid diction were recognizable across the generations, Rickman found a fresh legion of fans with his role as Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films. But the actor had been a big-screen staple since first shooting to global acclaim in 1988, when he starred as Hans Gruber, Bruce Willis’s sardonic, dastardly adversary in Die Hard – a part he was offered two days after arriving in Los Angeles, aged 41.

But Rickman was also a singular leading man: in 1991, he starred as a cellist opposite Juliet Stevenson in Anthony Minghella’s affecting supernatural romance Truly, Madly, Deeply; four years later he was the honorable and modest Col Brandon in Sense and Sensibility, starring and scripted by Emma Thompson. He was to reunite with Thompson many times: they played husband and wife in 2003’s Love, Actually and former lovers in 2010 BBC drama The Song of Lunch.

In 1995, he directed Thompson and her mother, Phyllida Law, in his directorial debut, the acclaimed Scottish drama The Winter Guest. Last year, he reunited with Kate Winslet, another Sense and Sensibility co-star, for his second film as director, A Little Chaos – a period romance set in the gardens of Versailles.

Yet it was Rickman’s work on stage that established him as such a compelling talent, and to which he returned throughout his career. After graduating from Rada, the actor supported himself as a dresser for the likes of Nigel Hawthorne and Ralph Richardson before finding work with the Royal Shakespeare Company (as well as on TV as the slithery Reverend Slope in The Barchester Chronicles).

His sensational breakthrough came in 1986 as Valmont, the mordant seducer in Christopher Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses. He was nominated for a Tony for the part; Lindsay Duncan memorably said of her co-star’s sonorous performance that audiences would leave the theater wanting to have sex “and preferably with Alan Rickman”.

He and Duncan – as well as their director, Howard Davies – reunited in 2002 for Noel Coward’s Private Lives, which transferred to Broadway after a successful run in London.

He and his wife, Rima Horton, met when they were still teenagers; she became an economics lecturer as well as a Labour party councilor. In 2012, the pair married, having been together since 1965. The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was one of the first to pay tribute on Twitter, along with Stephen Fry and Eddie Izzard.

Very sad to hear that Alan Rickman has passed away. One of the greatest actors of his generation. My thoughts are with his family & friends

That Rickman never won an Oscar (he did receive a Golden Globe, an Emmy, a Bafta and many more) became a perennial topic in interviews but did not seem to trouble the actor himself. “Parts win prizes, not actors,” he said in 2008. It was the wider worth of his art to which Rickman remained committed, saying that he found it easier to treat the work seriously if he could look upon himself with levity.

“Actors are agents of change,” he said. “A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world.”

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It was equally a busy year for Tom Hiddleston. This fall brought what fans called “Tom-pocalypse” with the promotions of Crimson Peak, High-Rise and I Saw The Light. Tom made the rounds of Comic-Con, talk shows and premieres. Here are some of his highlights..

1.Best man at Benedict Cumberbatch Wedding…

2. Wimbledon…

3. 2015 Award Shows…

4. San Diego Comic Con….

5. Toronto International Film Festival…

6. San Sebastian Film Festival High-Rise Premiere…

7. Crimson Peak Promotions and Premieres…

8. BFI Luminous Fundraising Gala…

9. MTV After Hours The Worst Party..

10. Talk Show Appearances..

11. I Saw The Light Trailers…

12. Crimson Peak…

13. High-Rise Trailers…

13. The Night Manager Promos…

14. Photoshoots…

15. Elizabeth Olsen (whether this was true or not, it dominated Tom’s headlines)..

“It’s everything. I have a new life form that needs his father’s help in the world and his mother needs a little help once in a while,” the actor continued.“It’s what being a parent is about so it’s not an excuse to get away from what I am doing — it’s what I ought to be doing. After three and half hours of Hamlet, I think that’s okay.”

While his Shakespeare play closed in October, Cumberbatch will surely be balancing fatherhood and his acting career as the fourth season ofSherlockbegins production in the spring.

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The Sherlock actor has joined Dame Helen, Hugh Laurie and more celebrities in donating clothes to raise money for people who can’t afford to stay warm this winter

Benedict Cumberbatch, Helen Mirren, Hugh Laurie and more celebrities are auctioning their clothes for charity to raise money for people across the UK struggling to afford to heat their homes or eat properly this winter.

Sherlock fans can bid for Cumberbatch’s Armani cardiga, Laurie’s biker jacket or Mirren’s coat. Of if you’re more into your Saturday night entertainment, a shirt belonging to Strictly’s Craig Revel Horwood is also up for grabs as is a trilby from Olly Murs.

Ed Sheeran’s O’Neill jacket, an army coat given to Jeremy Irons on the set of the third Die Hard film and Honor Blackman’s cashmere Ralph Lauren jumper will also be auctioned off, plus a signed Team GB cycling top from six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy and an Arsenal jacket from Arsene Wenger.

Helen Mirren said of the Turn2us’ No Cold Homes campaign: “There are so many people who can’t afford the basic essentials like a warm home and food for their families. That’s why the Turn2us No Cold Homes campaign is so important and I’m pleased to play a part in helping more families get the vital help they need this winter.”

The auction will be hosted on eBay from Monday 30th November to Wednesday 9th December 2015. For more information, visit www.turn2us.org.uk/NoColdHomes.

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It’s no secret that Tom Hiddleston is a god among mortals. His screen and stage acting credits places him into the top echelon of thespians… and, of course, he is a total hunky hunk. But, obviously, Hiddleston’s greatest contribution to the planet earth is his smile. The world is simply a better place when place when Tom Hiddleston smiles.

After all, Hiddleston’s smile is literally like bottled sunshine. If a magical genie came from the sky and granted me three wishes, my first wish would be to end world hunger, my second would be for world peace, and my third would be for a pocket-sized Hiddleston so I could see him smile whenever I want.

Since genies are not real (or maybe they are just really good at hide-and-seek), I must resort to looking at pictures and videos of Hiddleston on the Internet. (And by resort, I mean, I spend a lot of my free time doing this very activity. I promise it is not in a creepy way. It is in more of a scientific way, like scientist. A scientist who is studying just how gosh darn cute Hiddleston is.) So, here is the evidence I have gathered thus far about the different Hiddleston smiles.

Without the sun, life on Earth would be impossible. It provides food for the plants that feed us, and warmth so that we don’t freeze to death. But the sun has a dark side. It is, after all, a giant ball of fire in the sky, whose 27 million degree Fahrenheit surface is tossed about by burning tsunami waves 62,000 miles high. And at pretty much any point, it could burp out rivers of charged particles that could paralyze technology on Earth.

A new documentary premiering tonight asks the question, “What can cause our normally benign sun to erupt in such fury that it can threaten the world’s power and technological infrastructure?” according to a press release.

To answer that question, [Solar Superstorm] takes audiences into the inner workings of our star. It follows the path of hot magnetized gas from deep inside the sun, through its tangled journey through the Sun’s churning outer layers and on to explosive magnetic eruptions so powerful they can affect the Earth.

The documentary is narrated by none other than Benedict Cumberbatch, and it’s based on supercomputer simulations that are making it easier to understand where solar eruptions come from, and how to predict them. Also, it’s gorgeous.

Here’s one clip, below, and the National Center For Supercomputing Applications has four more that you can watch on their site. The full 24-minute documentary will be shown in planetariums and science centers after today.

**Sound like jealousy to me… Benedict may not have had a lengthy career, but has proven himself to be an extraordinary actor…

Cumberbatch has never won major acting award and is yet to reach 40

He’s decades younger than other stars when they received same accolade

Some feel CBE is more to do with his celebrity status than his career

He has never won a major acting award and is yet to reach his 40th birthday, but it emerged yesterday that Benedict Cumberbatch is to be recognized with a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honors.

After reports that the Sherlock star, 38, is to receive the accolade, which is just one rung below a knighthood, critics claimed the decision to do so turned the honors system into an ‘alternative Oscars’.

Cumberbatch is decades younger than other stars when they received the same accolade, leading some to speculate the announcement is more to do with his celebrity than his achievements.

Sir Anthony Hopkins and Kevin Spacey were both in their 50s before receiving their CBEs, while Sir Michael Caine and Sir John Hurt were both in their 60s.

MP Nigel Evans, a member of the Public Administration Select Committee when it published a report criticizing the rise of celebrity honors, said the trend is undermining the whole system.

He said: ‘It does seem to be that as long as your 15 minutes of fame stretches into 16 minutes you get a gong. We shouldn’t treat the honors system like the Tony Awards or an Oscar.

This is something which should be seen as for lifetime achievements, not an award because someone’s last movie was good.

That’s what the Oscars are there for and the Tonys and the Grammys, I do think we run the risk of the honors system being turned into an alternative Oscars or Grammys when it was never intended for that.’

He added that this trend means the people who deserve honors, ‘the people who have worked selflessly for charities for decades, the lollypop lady who has done her work for 40 years or the dinner lady who has been there for her lifetime’, are missing out.

On Cumberbatch’s young age, Mr Evans continued: ‘We do run the risk of dolling things out to people too early, perhaps in anticipation of some greatness they might achieve later on.

He might have had a good burst in film or on the TV, it seems like he’s been a big name only for a couple of years, whereas someone has put themselves out for 30 or 40 years, just because people don’t know their name, they don’t recognized’.

According to reports, Cumberbatch will be the star of honors list, being recognized for this services to drama.

However, with the actor riding high on the success of The Imitation Game and the Hobbit films, show business agent Tony Fitzpatrick believes the award is a ‘political’ decision to cash in on celebrity status.

He said: ‘In the old days of showbiz, you had to be in the business for decades before you got honored, now it’s to do with the size of your audience. It’s about making money. Benedict Cumberbatch is flavor of the month so it’s a political coup for whoever awards him the honor.

‘It’s not fair, I have people like Anne Diamond who led the cot-death campaign and has saved 150,000 babies lives but because it was a political issue at the time, she will never be recognized for that. There are lots of people out there who are doing lots of good things but because they don’t make OK magazine they are not honored.

‘It’s a bit like Blair’s Britain, they are saying “Let’s be cool and associate ourselves with fandom”. The honors system has changed, it’s less about rewarding long term good work and more about getting the headline. It’s certainly been devalued in the way a lot of traditions like that are.’

Cumberbatch, who recently married actress Sophie Hunter, 37, and is expecting his first child, missing out of recognition at this year’s film awards for his turn as wartime code breaker Alan Turing in The Imitation Game.

He was nominated for an Oscar, Golden Globe and Bafta but lost out on all of them. He has won none of his six career Bafta nominations.

The son of actors Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham, he was privately educated at Harrow.

He was criticized last year for referring to black people as ‘colored’ while on an American talk show, a remark for which he quickly apologized.

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Was an excellent day on The Ellen Show with guest Benedict Cumberbatch. Ellen put Benedict through the paces as she started off the interview by initiating with a shirtless shot of Benedict from Sherlock, which Benedict turned a little red over. Next the two talked about The Imitation Game and then Ellen presented Benedict with a list of potential baby names, “Engelbert” and “Carl” among them.

Later, Elle and Benedict played a “guess who” game where Benedict had to imitate a celebrity and Ellen had to guess who they were. Ellen guessed Alan Rickman (whom Benedict imitated by saying how bored he was of doing him) and Mathew Mcconaughey. She couldn’t guess Reese Witherspoon (who Benedict couldn’t imitate) and Jar-Jar Binks.

At the end of the interview, Ellen presented Benedict with a baby carriage that looked like the starship Enterprise.

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Happy 2015 Benedict Fans!! Here is hoping that your New Year will be filled with happiness and love. There are many things to look forward to in the New Year (especially, I hope, a new Sherlock) and I hope you have a safe and wonderful year.

His most famous residence to date may be a scruff flat in Baker Street, but Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch could be soon the master of his own mansion Stateside.

The 38-year-old actor is said to be keen to snap up a stunning estate in Los Angeles’ exclusive Hidden Hills neighbourhood as his career goes from strength-to-strength in Hollywood.

Benedict reportedly recently viewed the stunning seven-bedroom Tuscan-style villa which sits within 2.5 acres of manicured lawns and was blown away with its panoramic views.

Nice Holmes: Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch is reportedly keen to make an offer on a £10.8m Tuscan-style villa in California’s Hidden Hills

An estate agent tells the Daily Express: ‘Benedict’s representatives have indicated he is ready to make an initial offer which will not be too far off the asking price, so he could be moving in early in the New Year.’

The estate would certainly act as a more than adequate marital home for Benedict and his wife-to-be Sophie Hunter, who he proposed to at the beginning of November.

The impressive abode is bound to cement his place as one of Britain’s greatest acting exports, especially after his latest role as Enigma codebreak Alan Turing in The Imitation Game has sparked an Oscar buzz ahead of next year’s Academy Awards.

However, the modest star insisted he wasn’t getting his hopes up just yet: ‘I understand why it always happens at festivals but I just got my suit back from the dry cleaners from this year’s Oscars,’ he told Hello! ‘There are lots of films to see before we start going, ‘Ooh, blah, blah’.’

The potential move comes two years after he threatened to leave the UK behind over the ‘posh-bashing’ aimed at privileged actors, especially ones who have attended the likes of Eton and Harrow.

He told the Radio Times: ‘It’s all so predictable. So domestic, so dumb. It makes me think I want to go to America.

‘I wasn’t born into land or titles, or new money, or an oil rig.’

Stateside plans: The actor has previously insisted he would move to America due to the ‘posh-bashing’ of well-educated actors in Britain

Buzz: The move would cement his place as one of Britain’s top acting talents, especially as he is tipped to be nominated for an Oscar for his turn in The Imitation Game